Inspiring Serenity in the Midst of Modern Life
The Tea House
This photo was, I believe taken in early spring [judging by the shade of green in the picture] and we have yet to see it in spring. We are having fun imagining all the use we will get out of it come warmer weather.
Meanwhile, it makes for excellent storage for the patio furniture. And for a few laughs whenever one of us suggests that we could use the tea house … much too cold to even think of going out there now – high of 23 today!
My current grad school class is called Applied Research and Evaluation. I am really enjoying this term! I am a bit quirky in that I love spreadsheets and data – not sure why it took me almost 50 years to discover this about myself, but there you have it. I like data analysis – trying to see what story the data has to tell.
I’m currently working with our admissions department to survey about 50 colleges and universities about their events for prospective students. Having done the college visits with my two daughters in the last few years, the experience is fairly fresh in my mind. Some things stood out from those experiences.
In this culture of experience and adventure, what is that makes a great college visit and how can a school attract more students – what does it take to wow this generation? How can a college help prospective students determine the best fit?
These are the types of questions we are wrestling with – we seek to improve and I have chosen a Google survey as the instrument of my research.
Ahh, the holidays. Wonderful times, wonderful memories. The joy of family and presents. And then the trials and tribulations. A road trip the day after Christmas this year began late and without a check of the weather. Alas we were heading directly into a blizzard with 12-16″ of snow expected. What should have been a 7.5 hour drive turned into an overnight odyssey with over 16 hours of road time. Then we had a marvelous visit with my sister and her family … A great time was had playing in the snow and enjoying snow sports: snowshoeing, sledding, cross country skiing, and for some snowboarding. Unfortunately her husband was sick and unfortunately he passed it on to my daughter.
Time to travel home – complete with one sick person. A roundabout way and a stop to pick up mom – now we are traveling in 2 cars. And then a missed turn … at dinner time on the road on New Year’s Eve and we ended up with a flat tire. Murphy’s Law I guess. Fortunately my wonderful husband quickly put on the spare and we were on the road again. Finally got home about 11:15 pm. An 11 hour odyssey this time. Vermont seems very far away. I think next time we will opt for a summer visit! A very tired foursome celebrated at midnight with some sparkling grape juice and retired for the night. Goodbye 2012, Hello 2013.